Today, people are living longer than ever before. In fact, every six years, the average lifespan in the US increases by a year. In India, average life expectancy, which used to be around 42 in 1960, steadily climbed to around 48 in 1980, 58.5 in 1990, and 66.4 today
Squatted on a charpai just outside his one-room tenement in an obscure village called Karahal on the edges of the Chambal ravines in Madhya Pradesh, Ram Sevak Pathak exudes a Buddha-like serenity. His eyes, ears and knees might be deserting him, and his brain may now have a tenuous hold over his hand muscles, but looking at his relatively smooth skin, his upright spine, and, most remarkably, his exceptionally supple memory, no one can guess that the man is 105 years old.
What’s the secret of his long life when an average Indian man does not even cross 70? He betrays a childlike smile and replies with utter seriousness: “I believe the most important thing is to give your body the respect it deserves. If you don’t, there would be obvious consequences.” Pathak says that as much as he could, he has tried to follow a regular regimen of diet and exercise, besides abstaining from alcohol and tobacco. “Even now I do yoga in the morning,” he says with pride. “My only weakness,” he adds, “was spicy food, especially chilies, which I think did me much harm.”
In Pathak’s reckoning, having a purpose in life also plays a key role in keeping body and soul together for a long time. Pathak is a veteran Gandhian who, among other things, fought against the British rule; worked hard to unshackle the Saharias, an adivasi tribe that dwells in these parts, from the fetters of feudalism; walked thousands of miles as part of Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement; and was closely involved in the 1972 mass surrender by the Chambal dacoits. An impressive body of work, but Pathak says he owes his long years chiefly to the good wishes of the Saharias for whose good he has worked all his life. “If I am born again, I want to be born as a Saharia,” he says.
Anyone who has lived long swears by a few curious nostrums. Pathak is no different. His recommendation: quaff a litre of water first thing in the morning, but drink water only three-four hours after meal, eat less, and munch garlic with tea.
At 117, Emma Morano of Italy is the world's oldest living person and credits her long life to eating eggs and singlehood, while Misao Okawa of Japan, who died in 2015 after her 115th birthday, said eating a good meal and relaxing were the key to long life.
Pathak’s recipe for long life might seem plausible, and some credulous souls might even try to emulate it, but it is essentially idiosyncratic— another centenarian is very likely to prescribe an entirely different list of do’s and don’ts. The British war veteran Henry Allingham’s formula was “cigarettes, whisky, and wild, wild women.” Others have included happy marriage, minding one’s own business, and wine as prime suspects.
Evidently, there is no universal magic potion for a long life. As Hazel Miller, an American centenarian, told The New York Times, “There’s no secret about it. You just don’t die… The best part of being 100 is that you lived to be 100. If you can enjoy it, it’s an extra good thing.” Nevertheless, while a happy-go-lucky attitude might well be one of the secrets to a long life, it still does not explain how both life expectancy and longevity have risen appreciably over the last two centuries.
For the greater part of human history, life was, to quote 17th century British philosopher Thomas Hobbes, “poor, nasty, brutish and short.” As recently as in 1900, the average American did not get past her 47th birthday; now she can expect to cross 78 years. One reason average lifespans were so short is that many people died in infancy or childhood. Until the advent of modern public health care and medicine in the early 19th century, many children died before their fifth birthday. And among those who did survive the early attacks, very few crossed the age of 60.
I believe the most important thing is to give your body the respect it deserves. If you don’t, there would be obvious consequences Ram Sevak Pathak
Today, people are living longer than ever before. In fact, every six years, the average lifespan in the US increases by a year. In India, average life expectancy, which used to be around 42 in 1960, steadily climbed to around 48 in 1980, 58.5 in 1990, and 66.4 today.
Even more striking is the rise in number of people living beyond 100. According to the ‘UN World Population Ageing Report’ published in 2015, there were an estimated 3,16,600 living centenarians in the world, of which, as of now only 45 have been verified to have crossed 110, although their number is estimated at 350-400. Globally, the number of centenarians is projected to increase to 3.2 million in 2050. India is at present home to between 11,000 and 20,000 centenarians. But this number may go up to anywhere between 0.15 million and 0.6 million by the middle of this century.
As recently as two decades ago, research on ageing was considered fringe, more the preserve of charlatans and mavericks than of respectable scientists. But now it’s part of mainstream, with governments, corporations and maverick billionaires investing millions of dollars into the quixotic quest to delay the inevitable. Scientist now cannot but confront fundamental and tough questions about the nature of life, ageing and death that not so long ago were the domain of metaphysics or science fiction. For instance, why do we age and die? Is ageing and death the logical consequence of a genetic programme writ into our DNA, or is it a mere accident? Why do some animals live longer than others? Can the body be likened to a machine that can be repaired indefinitely?
Science’s quest to prolong life has a long and checkered history. Many ideas began with a bang but eventually fizzled out (see ‘Quest for immortality’,). The modern state-of-the-art ageing research came of age in the 1990s when Cynthia Kenyon, then a molecular biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, showed that mutation in a single gene could double the lifespan of a worm called Caenorhabditis elegans (C elegans). Before long, scientists had unearthed many more such genes in the genomic haystack, and all of them seemed to extend the lifespan of model organisms, such as worms, flies and mice. These early findings seduced venture capitalists into investing in the quest for the elixir of life. They set about first unravelling the hidden circuits controlled by these genes and then eventually manipulating them so as to create drugs that might simulate their life-enhancing magic.
(Courtesy: www.downtoearth.org Link for the complete article is here: http://www.downtoearth. org.in/coverage/mortal-combat-56836)
by Rakesh Kalshian
